Opinions on Coffee
by WrittenByMeow
Summary: Three times El doesn't like the taste of coffee and one time that she does.


1)

Having a little girl around was more tiring than Hopper remembered. Then again, this little girl was much older than his daughter ever got the chance to become. This little girl was much different than his daughter had been. Honestly, she was a handful. More than once he considered that he might have bitten off more than he could chew. There was plenty to help him through the trials and tribulations that was El. Coffee, namely. Yes, coffee was what was good in the world. That and a greasy breakfast did wonders for a hangover like his.

"Eat up, kid. Your breakfast will get cold," he grumbled.

Hopper felt El's intense gaze upon him. He heaved a sigh and set his coffee mug next to his heaping pile of bacon and eggs. He plopped down in the chair across from El. He picked up his fork and acted on his own advice. The greasy food settled in his stomach wonderfully. It was chased with a slurp of coffee. He smacked his lips and exhaled in satisfaction. All the while, he felt El's gaze.

Finally he met her gaze. In an irritated drawl he inquired, "Something on your mind?"

"What's that?"

He followed where her finger was pointing.

"This?" He asked, lifting the cup. "It's coffee. You've seen me drink it before."

Thoughtfully, she frowned. "Taste?"

His brows rose incredulously. "You want as taste?" He elaborated for her.

She nodded.

He considered her for a moment. He shrugged and shook his head at the same time. He slid the mug across the table to her as he said, "Sure. What do I care? Maybe it'll put a little hair on your chest."

El looked dubious about wanting hair on her chest but accepted the mug anyways. She wrapped her tiny, skinny hands around it and slowly brought it to her lips. She took a deep drink like she had seen Hopper do. Immediately she pulled her head away, her face screwed up in disgust.

Hopper busted out laughing and reached for the mug before she could drop it. "Mother's milk," he informed her smugly, showing off by taking another long, noisy slurp.

She wrinkled her nose and shook her head vigorously. "Bad," she objected.

He shrugged. He hadn't enjoyed his first taste of coffee either. Look at him now. "You'll learn to like it," he assured her.

2)

Life at the cabin was good. El was learning how to use the toaster. The toaster was good, in El's opinion, but also bad. It was good because it made her Eggos warm and toasty and she liked that a lot. It was also bad because, when the toaster was done, it spit the Eggos out very suddenly. She hadn't liked that at all. Eventually, she decided that she liked Eggos more than she didn't like the toaster. It was good and bad.

El munched on dry Eggos as she thought about how good Eggos were. They were so good, that it made everything better. It was an interesting thought.

Hopper set his coffee mug down on the table. That's when El got another interesting thought. She looked from the mug to the Eggo in her hand and back again.

Leaning across the table, El dunked her Eggo into the coffee. It happened very quick and she was back in her seat before Hopper even registered what she was doing.

"Hey! What are you doing?" He demanded, sliding his mug out of her reach.

"Eggos make better," she informed him matter-of-factly. The soggy part of the Eggo flopped as she gestured.

He huffed. "Yeah, well," he blustered, "ask next time."

"Okay," she replied, and took a bite.

It was… different this time, but mostly the same. The coffee taste wasn't so bitter, so it wasn't as bad. It definitely wasn't good. Not bad either. She shrugged and took another bite. Syrup was better.

Hopper huffed and grumbled but ate his breakfast in relative quiet. He kept one hand over his mug for the rest of breakfast.

3)

El was glad that Hopper let her go to the Byers' house. It was one of the few places he was okay with her meeting her friends. Some of his reasons she could understand. The Demigorgon attack was fresh in all of their memories. It was frustrating though, because that was part of the reason she wanted out so much. Surviving wasn't enough anymore. She wanted to live, to have fun. Why couldn't Hopper understand that?

Her friends were good at spotting what Lucas called her "Doom and Gloom" face. Dustin nudged her with his elbow. "Penny for your thoughts, milady?"

She offered a weak smile and shook her head. "Nothing," she said.

He shrugged, knowing he wouldn't get much else out of her. That was Mike's area of expertise, not his. He held his thermos out in her direction. "Coffee?"

She eyed the thermos speculatively.

Over the past few months, she had taken to stealing sips off of Hopper's coffee. He didn't mind as long as she asked first. Sometimes she didn't ask, just to rile him up. It was funny watching him huff and do absolutely nothing about it.

Slowly, she nodded. She accepted the lid that Dustin offered her. Curiously, she swirled the liquid inside. It was not what she recognized as coffee. The biggest difference was the color. Coffee was supposed to be dark, right?

El squinted at Dustin. He smiled guilelessly back.

Tentatively, she took a sip. As soon as it hit her tongue, she gagged. She put her hand mouth to keep accidentally spitting it out onto Mrs. Byers's carpet.

"It's good, right?!" He asked, nodding in earnest.

Equally as earnest, El shook her head. "Bad," she said hoarsely.

His jaw dropped. "What?! Are you crazy? This stuff is good. I put, like six scoops of sugar in here."

Lucas, who had been listening to the interaction, turned to Dustin with a scrunched face. "Dude," he said. "Overkill?"

"It's delicious," he defended himself.

El handed him the thermos lid. "That is not coffee," she declared.

Lucas and Will laughed as Dustin pouted. "I see how it is," he muttered, shoving his thermos back into his bag. "You'll see. You'll get cold and want some of this delicious, life-giving coffee and you know who's going to give it to you? Not this guy."

Lucas and Will just laughed harder. El joined them.

Not only were her friends good at spotting her dark moods, they were also pretty good at pulling her out of them

4)

It had been two weeks since Hopper died. El had passed out that night – the doctors had said it was normal after what they had endured. Ever since she'd been discharged from the hospital, she had been plagued by insomnia.

Not that Joyce hadn't been wonderful to her; Jonathan and Will, too. She would never be able to properly thank them for taking her in. Besides her sister Kali, who wasn't talking to her, and… Hopper, she had no one.

The sleepless nights were catching up to her. Every step was a battle. She trudged into the kitchen and dropped into the chair at the table.

"Good morning," Joyce greeted. At El's lackluster response, she frowned. "Honey, are you okay?"

El sighed. "Tired."

Joyce nodded but wasn't going to let it go that easily. "I've heard you up in the middle of the night. Trouble sleeping?"

El simply nodded.

"Lucky for you, I know just the thing," Joyce said brightly. She bustled over to the counter. Over her shoulder she called, "Have you ever had coffee, El?"

There had been many sips over the past couple of years. She'd never had a cup of her own. Finally she settled on saying, "Sometimes. A little."

Smiling, Joyce handed her a mug. "We have sugar in the cupboard. I think we're out of cream."

El traced the lip, carefully passing over the tiny chip there on the mug. She wrapped her hands around it. The warmth seared into her hands. Steam was rising off the surface of the coffee. She leaned over and inhaled deeply. It was rich and strong and, with the smoke from Joyce's cigarette lingering, it smelled just like Hopper.

"No, this is okay," she stated.

She took a sip. Over time she had become accustomed to the bitterness and knew what to expect. She was able to taste past that. She took a deeper drink. The hot liquid pooled in her belly and radiated warmth outwards, down to the tips of her toes.

El hadn't realized she had closed her eyes. When she opened them, however, she found Joyce staring at her. There was expectation in her deep brown eyes.

"Well?" Joyce asked, dragging the word out leadingly. A smile played around her mouth.

A smile broke out on El's face as she nodded. "Good," she declared.


End file.
